Wednesday, December 5, 2007

Steve Byrnes Answers Your NASCAR TV Questions

Since we have received so many great comments during the year about a wide variety of NASCAR TV topics, we have decided to add a new feature.

The Daly Planet will post a column talking about one NASCAR TV personality, and then allow you to ask them the one question that has been on your mind all season long. The key word in that sentence is...one.

Any post with multiple questions will be deleted, so make your one question count. Our guest will read the column, send me the answers they feel comfortable providing, and we will review what they say together. Considering the level of NASCAR TV knowledge shown in the thousands of comments on this blog, it should be interesting.

Our inaugural guest is Steve Byrnes from Fox Sports and SPEED. Currently living in the Carolinas, Steve is a graduate of the University of Maryland with a degree in Radio, TV, and Film. He hails from LaGrange, Illinois and his full bio from SPEEDtv.com can be seen by clicking here.

NASCAR fans like Steve because of his on-air style. He makes the transition between hosting a studio or talk show and working in the announce booth for on-track action very smoothly.

Using that versatility, Steve hosts the popular Trackside show on SPEED that has grown into a featured primetime live program for the network. On racing weekends, he also hosts NASCAR Live, and during the final ten race stretch he hosts The Chase is On from the SPEED studios in Charlotte.

The Daly Planet received many comments and emails about Steve's hosting of the practice and qualifying sessions for both the NASCAR Busch and NEXTEL Cup Series. He and his SPEED crew often stepped-in right between the other networks telecasting the actual races. In fact, when Byrnes ended practice for one series, another network might immediately go on-the-air with Happy Hour or a live race. NASCAR fans appreciated the good humor and solid knowledge that he brought to these telecasts.

Working for Fox Sports, Steve is a pit reporter for the NASCAR on Fox telecasts, and has also managed to quietly slip-in some work doing play-by-play for selected NFL Football games. That assignment is a big statement about his sports TV abilities.

Veteran NASCAR fans remember Steve from a long list of shows, including the Totally NASCAR series that aired on both SPEED and FoxSportsNet.

In summary, Steve has been a fixture on the NASCAR scene for some time now, and his ability to relate to the audience, show guests and his fellow on-air announcers has been well documented. We certainly appreciate his help with this "experiment."

This post will remain up through Thursday, to allow folks to think of the one good question that they have always wanted to ask. Steve will be reviewing the questions on Friday, and I will publish a column with his answers over the weekend.

UPDATE: Thanks for your great questions, Steve's answers will be up soon.

If this first effort goes well, we have Krista Voda, Wendy Venturini, Randy Pemberton, Matt Yocum and several other folks who would also like to participate. Thanks again for stopping by.

Thank you very much for participating in this session. You have always done a fantastic job with all your NASCAR TV work over the years and it's certainly an honor to get the chance to participate in this Q&A session with you.

My question relates back to your career covering the sport of NASCAR. I very much enjoyed seeing a lot of never-before-seen footage of some memorable times you shared with the late Dale Earnhardt in the movie "Dale". I was just wondering if there were any other memorable stories that stick out in your mind when you look back at the times you have shared with Dale or any other drivers / NASCAR personalities in your time covering this sport.

Since you're obviously a very busy guy, I'd like to know what your typical race weekend is like for you during the season. Not just your on-camera time, but the preparation that goes into bringing you and the crazy guys you work with to our TV screens every weekend. I'm sure you make it look way easier than it is, and I'm curious about what it takes to produce such TV awesomeness.

Steve, Do you believe television will still be the primary means by which NASCAR fans get their racing news in the future or will they gradually move to other platforms like the internet and their mobile devices to get NASCAR news and information?

Hi Steve, Thanks for taking the time to participate. You are such a professional and I have enjoyed watching you over the the years. My question is, have you ever committed an exteme blopper on air that was hard to recover from? (Because you and collegues were trying to supress laughter.) So much of what we see is live, so I hope you can share a funny incident.

Hi Steve, thanks for taking the time to come by and answer some of our questions. Mine concerns next year. Can you give us a hint on what new things you and Speed will be giving us next year as far as our Nascar coverage?

Steve - I have a two part question. Love your work and I agree with one other fan above, that your section in the dale movie was the best part. how come barney hall wasn't asked to be a part of the dale movie? I would imagine he has some really good stories about dale. ok..now to my questions. How come SPEED does not do a daily NASCAR program? It just seems like a no brainer. I know NASCAR nation bombed, but NASCAR now and ESPN lowered the bar for sure! Will you and your FOX sports team be working the two truck races this year on FOX? I love the trucks and I think they have a great team, but I would love to see the whole FOX sports nextel cup team work those shows. I think you guys are the best. thanks for taking the time to come to this website that john has put together.

Hello, Steve:I'd like to ask this question:Given that your sports background prior to 1985 was not automotive-related and your bio lists football as your favorite sport, what has kept you, in broadcasting, in motorsports the last 22 years (aside from the FOX NFL broadcasts that you do from time to time)?Thanks for taking your valuable time to respond to the questions in this column!Tom in Dayton, OH.

Thanks for taking time to answer some questions. This is not a criticism, and I enjoy FOX's coverage very much, but there is a very different approach that FOX takes to covering NASCAR than that of ESPN and TNT, and previously NBC. FOX is, shall we say, a little more fun and loose than the other networks, yet still covers the sport extremely well. Do you ever think or fear that the fun you guys have during the broadcasts takes away from the races, practices, qualifyings themselves and turns the announcers into "celebrities"?

Steve- Thanks for agreeing to consider questions. I got digital cable for 1 reason - so I can watch SPEED. I really, really do enjoy NASCAR practice, qualifying, and Trackside and your work on them and often tape Trackside to make sure I don't miss it. After hooking many fans for 10 months, why does SPEED go virtually NASCAR dark for December & January? I would enjoy Trackside reruns much more than what is in its place in the "off-season". I would really enjoy a weekly "off-season" show like The Chase show you did with Carl Edwards. Thanks for your super work.

When you do the pre-interviews with the guests, what are the type of things that they ask you not to bring up? What if that is the big story about them recently? Would you just ignore being a journalist and go with being a talk show host? I'm not sure how you see your role when the guest is involved in some controversy they want to hide from.

Hi Steve ! Love your work all of it in your many roles. Now my question - and its kind of a 2 parter sort of...If some one during pre interview says ok about a subject, then on air they keep talking about other stuff or going in a different direction - Who makes the decision to ask you or the voices in your ear & can you make the final decision?Oh John don't delete me please it really is all the same question I think & I've always wondered...

By performing research, I mean reading the weekly team press releases, logging on to message boards for the latest rumors regarding the sport, and by reviewing statistics such as driver and owner points.

I ask this because some of the television personalities seem to be clueless about certain events.

Take Pinnacle joining Ginn Racing and Joe Nemechek for example. When Nemechek made his qualifying run at Phoenix, the personalities in the booth had no idea what Pinnacle was. One of them even thought it was the golf ball company instead of a hotel/resort in Las Vegas. Ginn Racing had a press release that clearly stated what the sponsor was before that weekend. Thankfully the producers told the commentators what it was and they corrected the error, but they seemed unstudied or ill-informed.

Knowing which cars are in the top 35 in owner points has been a struggle for some commentators also. It seems like someone makes a mistake on every qualifying session.

Human error does happen, but some people covering the action seem to be clueless about events in the NASCAR community.

Thank you for taking the time to answer these questions, and please work on your Homer Simpson impression before you attempt it again. ;)

Steve, will INC be broadcast next race season and if so, will it have a new host? And why doesn't Speed have a program exclusive to the Truck & Busch series. Thanks & Happy Holidays, Vicky in Houston, Texas

Considering your well rounded and informed TV presence, it has been entertaining to watch the various shows that you host. The NCTS crew, collectively, has also been a pleasure to watch with it's compatible blend of banter and information. The various SPEED programs demonstrate that NASCAR reporters can present pertinent facts in an entertaining manner. So, my question is:

Why do the Cup race shows have to be bloated, over produced spectacles that, despite their devoted resources, are far less informative than the lower key NCTS races. Is it generally a corporate philosophy, a producer issue, a personnel issue etc? Despite all the pomp and ceremony of the Sunday races, the execution of the actual Cup race coverage has been disappointing, specifically on TNT and ESPN. I know that you can not be critical of a specific network, I am looking for an "in general" answer.

Do you believe the fans' current commenst about the state of NSCAR being in decline (due to reasons like officiating designed to produce a good "show," the COT, multicar owners, drivers who won't speak their minds on TV anymore, etc., etc.) are justified or not?

Interesting that you don't have any ESPN reporters lined up. Steve, thanks for taking the time to answer the FANS questions. It's good to know there are still a few people out there who care about us. My question is, In what direction do you HONESTLY(not from a FOX employee, but as a fan) see NASCAR headed, given the declining ratings, drops in attendance, and constant rules changes,and outright rage from the fans against NASCAR and the networks?

Would you be so kind as to give us a peek into a day in the life of a NASCAR Pit Road reporter? (i.e., how much time you spend in the garage before and after a race, how you listen to all the scanners of the drivers you're covering (or who's listening to them for you), how you continue to cover the pits when you follow a car to the garage or are waiting for a driver to come out of the infield care center, etc...)

Great work in all of your shows and we certainly look forward to seeing you return next year.

After reading all of the questions and seeing all of the great topics covered, I wondered what kind of question to ask you...then it hit me! With all the great things you have done in the many years covering the sport and the many things you continue to do, what is left for Steve Byrnes to do? In other words, what haven't you done yet that you would still like to do?

Thanks for the opportunity to ask questions and even more so for the opportunity to get them answered!

Since NASCAR has moved away from its roots and has alienated most of the old time fans of the sports, we can only hope that they will realize this before most of the fans finally do leave the sport.

My question is this, what is the probability of using the Busch (Nationwide) Series as a testing ground for new cup ideas? The "Pony Car" COT has proved to be extremely interesting to myself and others and could very well be something which brings back the old timers. I have even seen concepts drawn up that look downright sexy and reminds me of the glory days of the sport.

Steve-Thank you for taking all the questions and I love the job you do on SPEED.Would you ever consider doing another daily show such as Totally NASCAR again? I know some of the behind the scene's people such as Ryan, Rob, Amber and Scott would love to see T/N come back.